Friday, August 27, 2010

This past weekend, my cousin Cheryl got married in Renfrew. It was a rainy day, but we made the best of it.

Pre-wedding, post-dressing, Alison and Momma posed for me.

Somewhere along the line, I misplaced my glasses. Gah! My personality is practically missing in his picture!

Darryl got himself a pretty new shirt and tie for the occasion. And I brought my awesome.

I also met Alison's new boyfriend, Bobby. He was nice. But honestly, I couldn't care less what he's like, as long as he's not her horrible horrible ex. A homeless crack addict would be a suitable upgrade, as long as he's friendly. So, good choice here, Alison!

Finally the wedding began, and my uncle Larry walked Cheryl down the aisle. The ceremony was super fast and somewhat hilarious. Three cheers for a non-religious wedding, after three lengthy Catholic ceremonies this summer!

After the wedding, there was much chatting with the relatives, including dad and my half brother Thomas.

Here are Cheryl and James with Cheryl's parents and grandparents [on her mom's side, since our grandparents on our dads' side are gone].

My aunt Celine was here from Calgary, along with Karl who is unphotographed due to his HORRIFYING outfit. [Seriously, he used to be so well put together, but he was wearing a grey plaid jacket with striped pants, a red shirt, a purple tie, and a pocket square in a different shade of red. And some sort of Hitler haircut.]

The wedding cake was delicious and beautiful. Like almost everything, Cheryl made the cake, after just a few weeks in a cake making class. Well done, I say! And the bottle of crème de menthe in the cake didn't hurt things at all.

Alison tried cutting the cake, but failed.

Its interesting what can happen in 7 years. This is literally the exact same location, give or take a few inches.

My neighbours in Ottawa / Cheryl's cousin Briana / her boyfriend/my friend since Grade 6, Greg, were also in attendance, making it the second wedding I've been to this summer with them.

Darryl seemed to enjoy himself, even though it was an older crowd, with less people our age to talk to.

Here, Rachel chases Thomas. Oh, the children.

And here is my step brother Josh holding Thomas. After 6 or 7 years of him being here, I'm finally getting to know Josh a little more. Its kind of nice. Especially since he's treating me like an older brother, asking me for advice and stuff. It feels kind of cool.

Eventually, Cheryl and James cut the cake. Like I said, it was delicious.

And finally, by the end of the night, I got to spend a little time talking to Cheryl. Best of luck to the happy couple!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

On Sunday the 15th, I got together with some friends at the Honest Lawyer for a three-coworker sendoff. Which ultimately was turned out to be a bit of a letdown crowd-wise, but the people who WERE there were all fantastic. Also, it was a sendoff for three people, but as of this point in the month, EIGHT FREAKING PEOPLE have handed in their resignation at my store. Some of those people are fantastic, and I'm going to miss them so much. It is also prompting me to finally get off my ass and start job hunting for something better... so if you know of anything full time, let me know!

Sarah is leaving us to go to school in Toronto. She was only around for the summer, but she's one of the nicest people I've ever worked with. She skipped over that whole awkward period of getting to know people... she just made herself part of the cool kids from day 1.

Christine is moving home to Windsor, after some sort of bizarre situation where she wont have anywhere to live in Ottawa, so she's leaving. It's also leaving her higher up position available. The managers want me to take the promotion, but I'd never want to advance at my store. Its not worth the hassle.

Here's a good group... Martin, Sarah, Sam, me and Morgan.

We finally met Martin's girlfriend Quinn, who also works for the company, but not in our store. She was awesome, and after months of working with Martin, I finally got to know him over several drinks. It was great!

Samantha is leaving us for Calgary, where she's going into law school. I will miss her the most, because we started together, and she got more awesome every single day. She came and gave me a final goodbye hug today, and it was sad. She's not a hugger, but this one lasted forever. Still, not long enough.

And here's Morgan and Sarah. Thankfully Morgan is staying, or else I'd have almost no one left. And Colleen is coming back to Ottawa soon, so it will be nice to see her again. But seriously, I need a new job. I've reached the limit.

Monday, August 23, 2010

The first weekend of August, Darryl and I rented a car and headed on down to Toronto. The car was upgraded to a Chrysler 300 Touring, AND the price was downgraded $20 for no apparent reason. It was amazing. It was also my first time driving on the 401, which everyone makes a big deal out of, but it was easy! [Just stay in the fast lane and you're fine!]

We stayed at the Westin Harbour Castle, which gave us an amazing view of the water and the CN Tower. We went with Hotwire.com which got us a super cheap room. We assumed we'd get a standard room, but instead, we got a fantastic room on a preferred guest floor. Again, the universe was throwing awesome at us!

After getting settled, we headed on down to the tower.

Darryl took us for dinner in the lovely rotating restaurant. It was [A] my first rotating dinner, and [B] the first time I've been up in the CN Tower since I was a child, aka the first time I actually remember. Again, we were kind of late and had no reservations, but they got us a table. Thank you! The dinner was fantastic :)

And even though we finished eating after the building was closed, they still let us stop at the observation deck. I enjoyed being bathed in red light.

But Darryl just couldn't hide when purple came calling...

There weren't many other people out there, but we finally chased down some people to take our pic. Thanks to them as well!

It took me about 5 minutes to finally gain the physical ability to step out onto the glass floor, and that was first accomplished only by holding onto Darryl's shoulders. I just couldn't do it!

Eventually, we were back on the ground. The next day, we went to the Ontario Science Centre, to check out the awesome Harry Potter exhibit, with stuff from the movies. The costumes the kids wore in the first movie were SO TINY.

Again, I can't believe how great our view was from the hotel.

Saturday afternoon, we went to the ROM [my first time]. We only had two hours, and its really more of an all day museum, but we blew through as much as possible. It was fun.

We even saw the Terracotta Army men, which was pretty nifty.

That night, we were at the Molson Amphitheater

Where Lady Antebellum was freaking awesome [I've wanted to see them for a while!]

And Tim McGraw was great for my second time.

On the Sunday, we went shopping on Yonge St., then it was eventually time to head back to Ottawa in the rain. Thank you, Toronto!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

WARNING: The last two pictures (of six) show minor surgery incisions. Either you are into that sort of thing and should scroll right down, or you're not into that sort of thing, and you should wait for my next blog post to read about my life. Or, why not try out the archives!?

About two years ago, I was sitting at this very desk, on this very chair, at a different computer, in a different apartment. As I always did, I rested my foot on one of the casters on the bottom of the chair, and noticed some minor pain. I decided to inspect my foot, and noticed a lump in the arch, underneath the skin. Obviously I assumed I had cancer and was well on my way to death. I also decided to ignore the problem, to see if it would grow or go away.

Months passed, and I woke up one day with my foot all swollen like crazy, and I was unable to walk. Somehow I got to the emergency room, where they eventually gave me anti-inflammatories, and everything went back to normal. About 3 months later, it happened again, and about 6 months later, it happened again. The lump never got bigger, but I was walking slightly on the side of my foot, throwing everything out of line. I couldn't walk long distances, or run, without it starting to hurt.

So I went to a foot clinic. And then again. And again. And again. And again. Each different doctor, stupider than the last. One would tell me they didn't know what the lump was. The next would tell me I'd have it removed, but then my next appointment would just be a new doctor starting from the beginning again. One my last visit, I left the clinic furious, swearing a blue streak. I made a decision to never return there. These appointments wasted a year.

In June, I decided to take a day off work, and see my family doctor in Renfrew for the first time since 1998. He instantly told me a surgery appointment would be set up. Two weeks ago, I was called, and on Monday night, I was on the bus home to Renfrew again.

Tuesday morning was my pre-op, where a hilarious guy named Brad talked me through the surgery (not that its complicated) and helped me find the blood taking clinic, where the lovely woman there took my blood easily and I left immediately. No passing out!

That night, I took this picture of a sunset, which I'm using as filler space just to absolutely make sure people who don't want to see the incision pictures wont see it when they open this post. I'm so kind. Its really not that gross. Don't worry.

Wednesday morning, I went in for surgery. When they put in my IV, I thought I was going to vomit and/or pass out. It was intense, but I called a nurse over and she quickly fixed me up. Apparently that happens to people when an IV causes their blood pressure to drop. It was freaky. But the surgery was easy... They knocked me out, and I was awake in recovery 40 minutes later. I got Brad to show me the lump they had removed. It was white and red and looked spongy and gross. Bye bye!

I got a sweet bootie.

And my toes were all grossly covered with iodine or something. When I woke up, my toes were stuck together and I was like WHAT THE FRIGGIN' HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?

The next day, I got to take the bandage off. It was gross.

And now I've got this little cut. But its healing really well. I could walk on my heel the first day, then not at all the second day, but I've been walking again ever since. Today its all bruised which is lame. But I've almost completely weened myself of the oxycocet with over half the bottom left. So, err, its up for sale ;) hah

After a week in Renfrew, with lots of friends and family time, I'm back in Ottawa. Off for two more days, then back to work Wednesday for a short shift. Yay!